I
was then about as high as the towers above the plain, and I could
hear the words and the cries of joy of the people who were
following me below. At length I came to a plain about 200 feet
in extent. The people then assisted me and brought my vessel to
anchor. Immediately I was surrounded by gentlemen and foot
passengers who had run together from all parts."
This voyage lasted one hour and a quarter. The most important
incident of it was that the balloon was very nearly burst by the
expansion of the hydrogen gas. No balloon, as we have already
seen, should be entirely inflated at the beginning of a journey.
Blanchard had a narrow escape from being the victim of his
ignorance of physics, and it is a wonder he was not left to the
mercy of fate in a burst balloon, at several thousand feet above
the earth.
Biot, the savant, who had watched the experiment, declared that
Blanchard did not stir himself, and that the variations of his
course are alone to be attributed to the currents of air that he
encountered. As he had inscribed upon his flags, his balloons,
and his entrance tickets, from which he realised a considerable
sum, the ambitious legend, Sic itur ad astra, the following
epigram was produced respecting him:--
From the Field of Mars he took his flight:
In a field close by he tumbled;
But our money having taken
He smiled though sadly shaken,
As Sic itur ad astra he mumbled.
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